Meet John of Stay True Cycle Works

“Some of my earliest memories were on bicycles, but it was about 15 years ago that I really got serious about riding.”

This is John, the owner of a new mobile bike repair business called Stay True Cycleworks. As many small businesses struggle to stay solvent under the pandemic, John’s business is booming.

“My neighbors started asking me to help fix their bikes, and I just started teaching myself. The work picked up so much, so I went abroad to Europe on a cycling trip. Then I got back and—day one—people were asking me to fix their bikes. So I took some business courses, put together a business plan, and things started taking off.”

It’s not the small business pandemic story you typically hear. Quite the opposite, in fact, and when we pointed this out to John, he smiled.

“Things definitely changed when the pandemic hit. In January and February 2020, things were fine, but after the pandemic my phone would not stop ringing. People had more time and wanted their bikes fixed up. With my mobile business model, I could show up, help them at a distance with mask and gloves on, and they didn’t have to do much of anything—they could even stay in their homes while I made repairs!”

“I’m just trying to keep people on bikes.”

—John

The growth John has seen in such a short time is exciting, and he’s not about to slow down. John aims to work full time at Stay True Cycleworks by 2022.

He’s temporarily operating out of his repair studio off Orange Ave. while his repair van undergoes a few upgrades, and he was glad to hear of our Orange Avenue Family Friendly Streets initiative—which includes traffic calming measures to encourage more active transit like cycling.

Be sure to bookmark his site for the next time you need a repair or tuneup, and you can follow him on Instagram here. Thanks for supporting a great new small business that encourages something as important as community biking.